A Touch of the Dead
by Anaklusmos08
Summary: It's been one year since the battle. Kronos is now defeated, and the demigods assemble at Camp Half-Blood for a new and bright summer. What could happen to the lives of two boys if love and Death decide to dance with the Fates, weaving together their threads in a dark and dangerous pattern? Slash, Percy/Nico, first fic, I still suck at summaries, don't hate me... yet!


**A/N: Hello there, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this deviation of my mind! First things first: I'm a new writer, so don't flame me. This is a slash/boy on boy story, so don't like, don't read. Your reviews shall help me build this story, and also make me grow as a writer, so, they're highly accepted. Rated M for late chapters. Sorry if any grammar errors, English isn't my native language. Now, have fun, and good reading!**

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**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belong to Rick Riordan, he deserves all the credit. This is just a fanfic, a result of my mad and pervert imagination.**

He didn't like the morning. It was a hot and sunny summer morning, and that made him sleepier. Yet the boy had to get up, the training routine started early, it was the first day of summer. He got up and looked at himself on the mirror.

"Here we go again… *sigh*" Indeed, Nico di Angelo wasn't a morning person. Ten minutes later, he was ready. Wearing his typical black jeans and a black version of the Camp Half-Blood traditional orange t-shirt, he got out of the Hades' cabin. The place seemed to attract the nearby shadows to it, and a few campers already made horror stories concerning the big manor.

Speaking of them, on his way to the dinner pavilion he found some Hecate's kids drawing weird runes in a circle on the ground. After one of them clapped his hands, a purple flame lit up on the center of the circle. "It's magic. Simple and unexplainable magic" Nico muttered. One of the kids – a young girl, no older than eleven – apparently heard and let out a shy smile at him. Maybe not everyone was scared of the son of Hades. He smiled back, that was a good sign, and kept walking.

Even though he wasn't fond of mornings, he liked the sunlight. It warmed his semi-cold and pale skin, and he liked that. He looked up, admiring the blue sky and –

"Whoa!" Was all he could say when a foreign strength pinned him to the ground.

"Missed me?" His attacker said. Nico looked up at the bastard. And he blushed immediately at the sight. The body that pushed him down was no more than Percy Jackson, the Son of Poseidon, the Hero, the Savior, titles, titles, titles… and also, his crush since he got back from the labyrinth. 'Act normal, Nico, act normal' he said on his mind. "You son of a –"

"God, and a nice woman that would adopt you if she could. Now, let me help you up" Percy got him up, and they gave a small hug.

"You never change, Percy." Nico said, as he resumed walking.

"And I'll never will!" Percy answered, quickening his pace to follow Nico, both teenagers needed breakfast ASAP.

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They stood in the crowd, waiting for Chiron. The old man… I mean… Centaur wanted to make an announcement after the breakfast, before the training routine began. On the way to the Dinning Pavilion they were joined by Annabeth and a newcomer that Nico didn't knew. Annabeth found him living on the streets as an orphan. Apparently, his name was John. He was with the Hermes' children, as he wasn't claimed yet. It would probably happen at the fire tonight.

While they waited and chatted about random events, Nico analyzed his friends. Percy seemed to be struck in time. He didn't change a bit from last year, or if he did, Nico didn't notice. In this peaceful year after the war, Percy was the one he most visited and spent his time with. As he always looked pale and skinny, Percy's mom wanted to keep him living there, but he refused politely. Annabeth's hair was longer, she was wearing a grey shirt that read "Athena's Owl" in Ancient Greek, something like "Κουκουβάγια της Αθηνάς" and he noticed she was holding Percy close to her. He had a little flash of jealously, but he reminded himself that he can't be possessive over something, or in this case, someone, that wasn't his. At least, the two of them weren't dating. The newcomer was almost as pale as Nico was. He had green eyes with a tint of golden close to his iris, and had a spiky black hair. He wasn't tall, almost the size Nico was a few years ago, and judging from his skull shirt and ragged jeans probably he would have a lot in common with Nico.

The centaur came at last. Behind him were Mr. D and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, also known as "The fire-headed oracle".

"Quiet, all of you!" Chiron screamed, getting the campers attention. "Now that I have your attention, we wanted to make some announcements. First of all, welcome to Camp Half-Blood! As some of you remember, last year was a rough year for both demigods and gods. Olympus is now under heavy rebuilding, with the help of promissory architects, some of them fellow campers like our friend Annabeth Chase." The eyes turned to Annabeth, and she blushed, getting some distance between her and Percy.

"I'm sure the Gods send their regards to their children. As you can see, the camp is different this year. There are new cabins for minor gods' demigods, and also a Hades cabin has been built along with the other major gods' cabins. That will reduce the population of Hermes' cabin. Now, let me make the formal announcements: Cabin #1 and #2 stay vacant. Cabin #3's counselor is Percy Jackson. Cabin #4's counselor is Miranda Gardiner. Cabin #5's…" Chiron reported every cabin's counselor, and read the basic routine that was also posted at our cabin's doors. If we wanted to make adjustments, we should look for him in the big house.

"… Also, before I pass the word to Mr. D, let me congratulate those who participated in the battle last summer, especially Perseus Jackson. May the gods bless all of you, and have a good day! I will see you again at the training grounds." Chiron said before he retired himself.

Mr. D started speaking "Well then, welcome to Camp Half-Blood, blah, blah, blah. As this is the first day of summer, and I'm in a nice mood, myself and Chiron agreed to only put you through only two training sessions today." Mr. D spoke, and a few, ok, many lazy campers cheered. "Don't worry, my dear diligent campers, it's just today. Please, go to the sword fighting arena, Chiron shall be already there."

A few moments later, all were there as Mr. D commanded. "Done? Good. We will have sword fighting practice as you may notice. We have tons of newcomers this year as there are more cabins ready to be filled by your stinky presence. Sorry, Ares' campers, but this year you won't be picking the younger to show off. Newcomer will fight another newcomer, veteran will fight another veteran. You have five minutes to find your opponent." Mr. D said, and the whole Ares' cabin growled in deception.

Percy was looking for Nico, and vice versa. Once they found each other, Nico taunted him "Ready to be thrown on the floor, "Hero"?" Percy was quick to answer. "Dream on, snow white, dream on." Nico flickered in rage on the nickname.

"Now, the rules: get a blunt weapon from the racks right there. No low blows, no taunts involving bad words or the other's mother, especially if she's a Goddess. You can fight each other to your heart's content, but unfortunately, no killing allowed. The fight will be over if either of you is incapacitated, disarmed or find yourself with a blunt sword poking your throat or any other vital organ. Now, get ready. In three, two, one… FIGHT!"

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This was lasting for almost an hour and they were the last ones fighting. Nico and Percy exchanged blows and parries, both concentrated in defeating the other. As Annabeth noted, Nico attacked faster and often let his guard down, but Percy's attacks were stronger and he was good at dodging and parrying. They were completely even, and both tired. Percy and Nico's swords clashed again, blunt steel grinding blunt steel, trying to disarm each other. Their swords separated themselves for the last time, and in a brief moment, Percy's sword was on Nico's throat and Nico's sword pointed at Percy's chest. Both of them panted hard, while the campers watched both of them in awe.

"I declare this a tie." Chiron said. "Congratulations, both of you. It was a long spar"

"Yay for both of you, you can be declared the best swordsman on the camp. Satisfied?" Mr. D said with an sarcastic face, but he wasn't lying.

"Look at the time! Go to your cabins, you'll have one hour of free time till lunch. For those who aren't accustomed, gather at the Dining Pavilion, a.k.a. "the Mess Hall" at twelve o'clock. See you there!" The centaur and Mr. D retired to the big house. Rachel was there already, or so they thought, as she wasn't around when they were training.

"I'm going to show the camp to our friend here. See the both of you latter, especially you, Percy." Percy blushed. Nico glared a deadly, head piercing glare at the blonde, but she didn't noticed. Annabeth spent the year helping rebuild Olympus, and Nico traveled a lot, including visiting her. She might be his rival on this matter, but she was his friend. After last summer, she dated Percy for four months, but it seemed that it didn't go well. She hoped to snatch Percy again this summer, and he faked excitement for her. That very moment he wanted her dead, but he still liked her.

"Well, let me congratulate you, Percy. You're the Camp's hero now."

"At least people don't look at me with that "you're retarded" face around here. What you're going to do now?" Percy asked with a curious face… that was extremely cute in Nico's own fluffy and dark mind.

"Train, like I did in the last five months. I'm still not able to beat the crap out of you like I wanted." He wasn't lying, he spent the last years improving his techniques, and one of the reasons he trained so hard was to beat the son of Poseidon. He wanted to show him he was strong.

"But training is boring. We just had a spar! A long one by the way. You're getting better, certainly." Percy said, wanting to drag the boy with him for a while. Maybe they could catch up with Annabeth, Groover or both.

"That we tied by luck…" Nico provoked him. He knew he would pay dearly for this, but he was just in his normal self.

"Say WHAT? Luck?" Percy definitely gave up to the taunt. "I want a rematch, now!" Ah, if he could notice the large smile on Nico's face right now!

"Grab that sword, then, blue man. I should tell you I've learnt some new tricks" Nico said. They were both back in position.

Percy ran to slash him, but… Nico just vanished? Suddenly, he felt something poking his back, and he was thrown to the floor. "I told you I've learnt some new tricks!" Nico exclaimed.

"Not fucking fair, Nico!" Percy remarked. "No powers allowed, remember?"

Nico crawled and looked at Percy in the eyes and winked. "I never said that…" He did a dangerous move. He tried mastering shadow traveling lately, and discovered he could pass small distances, like a meter or two, without feeling exhausted. He would use that to attack from behind, giving him big advantage in fights. But now, he was lost at Percy's face, his perfect features and his cute red lips.

He didn't know why the fuck he did it, maybe by instinct, maybe out of pure madness, but he went forward and pressed his lips against those.

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**A/N: That's completes the first of many chapters. Thanks for reading, and, you know, R&R!**


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